Blog

Posted on

Self-Coaching Tip – Take Short ‘Fun Breaks’

“Fun is good.” – Dr. Seuss

When was the last time you took a break during the working day for some fun?

I often start the day with a long ‘to do’ list, but I always throw in a couple of ‘fun items’ too – these are things which I enjoy and don’t consider to be work (even though I do actually enjoy most of my work too). Quite often though, the ‘fun items’ get scrapped from the list, because other jobs have taken longer or new work has come into the equation. Obviously, that happens sometimes, but this self-coaching tip is really for those who are not allowing themselves to have a break – and are constantly working, resulting in them feeling stressed and actually not being able to relax, even at bed-time. 

So, to benefit from this tip, make time for a fun activity – it doesn’t need to be long, and it needs to be something which you like, preferably something which means you have to move around a bit. It could be as simple as throwing paper balls into a bin or making a mini golf course in your office or living room.

It doesn’t matter what the activity is; the onus here is on getting into a playful state – one which is curious and excited.

Write your fun activity onto your list and make sure you do it! No scrapping it from the list – it only has to be for a few minutes. Focus fully on the activity while you are doing it and when you’ve had a little fun, go back to work, knowing that you will have some more fun soon. Do this regularly to increase your productivity and improve your ability to relax after you stop working.

 In NLP terms, this is called a ‘break state’ where you are shifting from a work-state to a play-state, for example. Regular breaks like these will keep you feeling refreshed and energised. It’s as much to do with moving to a new physical position as it is to do with toggling between left and right brain activities. And it works for me.

As ever, please share your thoughts or ideas by leaving me a comment here or on Facebook or Twitter 🙂

Posted on

Winter Sun

I was an extremely lucky lady this month, to have been taken away for a week of winter sun, to the beautiful island of Madeira. The trip coincided with a) one of the drearier weeks of the year and b) with my birthday! In case you’re trying to place in your mind’s world map where exactly Madeira is, I’ll help. It’s north of the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean, and therefore closer to Morocco than Portugal (which it is part of). So although Madeira is in the EU, it is blessed with beautiful sunny, warm weather all year round. Which explains how I ended up there! I have to say, having a blast of sunshine in January really does lift your spirits. I know we’ve had a mild winter in England (compared to the last few years), but it was just wonderful to feel the sun on my face again 🙂 I will be sharing lots of my pictures in up-coming posts, so you will get to see a bit of what it’s like.

On my actual birthday I really wanted to visit Garajau, a seaside town near the capital Funchal, because of the beautiful statue which stands at the headland. It is a miniature version of the Christ The Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, which I have always wanted to visit. 

Christ the Redeemer statue, Garajau, Madeira

Ponta do Garajau, Cristo Rei, Canico, Madeira

Sunshine + statues = enjoying my birthday!Incidentally, I just heard a report on the news today about the possibility of London having its very own Christ the Redeemer statue placed at the top of Primrose Hill to mark the end of the London Olympics and welcome the 2016 Rio Olympics. The idea is still being discussed, so we will have to wait and see what happens!

Posted on

Best Year Ever – 2012!

Hello everyone and a very belated Happy New Year to you! I can’t believe that 3 weeks of 2012 are already over! I have been enjoying an extended holiday and rest period and am now ready to get back to work. This year I have many exciting ventures up my sleeves and I am ready to face some personal challenges too. I also intend to write blog posts more often, sharing self-help tips and inspiration to help you live a happier life. I am taking the leap and embracing new opportunities and want to help encourage you to do that too. So, if you are not already on the mailing list, click the subscribe button, pop in your email address and you’ll never need to miss a blog post again! Let’s make 2012 our best year ever.

View of the sea, Garajau, Madeira

Posted on

Relaxation Meet-ups

Starting in spring 2012… I am going to be hosting monthly relaxation meet-ups in North London. The meet-ups will be a  way of learning relaxation and meditation techniques, practising them and sharing a relaxing space together. I each session I will share some NLP techniques too. Send me an email at zeenat@embracecoaching (or use the contact form) to show your interest and I will send you the details!

Posted on

Self Coaching Tip – Review Your Achievements

This blog post was going to be about setting goals for the new year, but I thought that I ought to review my goals for this year first. I often find that I need to remind myself of what I have already achieved before rushing on to the next thing. I think this is because I am very goal driven (in some circumstances) and this is what pushes me to keep thinking up new adventures! You can read more about motivation (sometimes called a toward or away-from metaprogram in NLP terms) in a previous blog post I wrote called Use the Carrot or the Stick?

Review Regularly

 I sometimes feel as though the whole day has gone by and I haven’t achieved a thing – until I remind myself to sit back and survey what I have actually done. Much of the work I do is not tangible in the way that a product is. I can’t sit back and say, ah yes I have knitted 10 scarves today, or written 10 pages. I am mostly working with ideas in childrens’ heads and shifts in the mind-sets of adults… quite difficult to see! Maybe you recognise this pattern? Or perhaps you think about your achievements in a different way? I’d love to hear your thought on this.

Goal 1: Do more of the work I love, and get paid for it

This year I had many goals which had very tangible results – so it would be easy to know if I had achieved them. An example would be looking for a new home and selling my current abode – tangible. This sounds simple but in actuality it was a massive goal which took many months and had many mini goals within it. The ones I am more concerned with here are the goals which have less tangible results. So being paid for doing work that I love –  I have made steps towards this goal, or have achieved it temporarily, because this goal requires a ifestyle and mind-set change. It is much harder to say ‘Yes! I have achieved that,’ because it is a work in progress. This year I have been so excited to work with lots of lovely new coaching clients (as well as lovely clients I knew from before), have been teaching relaxation to children of all ages and doing more educational consulting. It has been an amazing year work-wise and I am very proud of what I’ve achieved:)

 Goal 2: Spend more time meditating and actively relaxing

Until recently, I thought about meditation as something other people did, and something that I did not really understand. I understood the point of it, and had an idea of the peace and calm it gives to others, but I did not really know how to do it and thought it would be difficult and time consuming.

What I now realise is that by giving myself a short time-out and following a guided meditation, I am actually more focused and productive when I want to be. This goal emerged over the year and meditation has now become something I do regularly. I am still learning every day, so this goal is a work in progress. I am currently using meditation CDs as I like to have a voice and words guiding me, rather than a silent or music-only meditation. In the words ‘Spend more time meditating’ I chose not to pressure myself with time limits or a schedule as I thought it would be counter-productive. You can read more about what I have learnt with regards to meditation and relaxation in my Relaxation Blog posts.


Goal 3: Have more fun

I enjoy most things. Even if they’re not that good. I just try to make the best of them, and although I might grumble and get annoyed at first, once I’m in a situation I do make the best of it. So this goal is more about creating more fun, rather than just finding the fun in everyday things (which is good too!). I have been actively seeking out more of the events, shows, walks, company and trips that I would love to do. All work and no play makes Zeenat a dull girl, so I definitely need to keep this up! Work commitments take up lots of time, but I have tried to make time for the things that I enjoy too, like spending time with loved ones. Again, I have achieved this goal more often, but it is something I will keeping working on. I wrote another blog post about this very idea which you can read, called Create Fun for Yourself.

 Before you start making new goals for 2012, consider: What have I achieved this year? Take time to notice both the tangible and the less tangible.

I would love to hear from you, especially if your goals were to do with changes in your mind-set or your lfestyle. Please leave me a comment here or on Twitter or Facebook. 

Have a happy Christmas all, and see you in the new year. 2012 is going to be even more amazing!!

Zeenat xx

Posted on

Budget Christmas Adventures

This year I decided to put up my decorations early, buy all of my gifts, write my cards and generally get myself into the Christmas spirit well before I usually do – mainly because of my moving home situation being a bit up in the air and also because I am trying to limit my budget this year. By starting early I gave myself more time to plan and have less chance of over-spending.

It feels now as thought the recession is truly beginning to bite – I keep hearing more bad news about job losses from friends and neighbours and I have noticed prices going up all over the place. One way of distracting myself from all of this doom and gloom has been to enjoy more of the simple pleasures in life – making my house look sparkly and inviting, trying out new recipes and becoming addicted to this year’s ‘I’m a Celebrity’. Thankfully my t.v. addiction for this year is now over, so I can get on with the real spirit of Christmas and visit friends and family and have them over too.

I started buying gifts early this year to take advantage of sales and special offers and have made my own tags from old Christmas cards instead of buying (for example) 6 for £1.00! A really simple thing I also did was a set a budget for each gift and stick to it (this is usually where I go wrong). I have also put aside my cards to hand to people when I see them and only post cards to those who I definitely won’t see. (I have toyed with the idea of sending an online card, which would be free(!), but haven’t done that yet. Maybe next year!)

I’d love to hear what changes, if any, you have made to fit with budget constraints. 

Anyway, here are some sparkly pictures I wanted to share with you to brighten your day.

Our first Christmas card of the year. This cat is the spitting image of Puffin!

Vintage card which reminds me the style of illustration when I was a child

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am also planning lots of free/low cost activities:

I visited the Dickens Christmas Market in Rochester (Kent) on the weekend, which was free to enter and was festive fun. The only money I spent was on things to eat (I was in the vicinity already).

I am hoping to pop in to The Enfieldian Vintage Fair this weekend where my friend Miss Honey Bare will be getting creative with vintage hair and make-up. Visit Heyday Honey to find out more about the aptly named ‘Make Do Christmas’ event.

I am also attending a free walk on the grounds of Trent Park, my old haunt to find out more about its history on the ‘History and Mystery Tour‘.

Look out for free events on the internet (try your council website) and local papers. Feel free to share any budgetting tips of your own and have fun whatever you’re up to this Christmas!

Posted on

Early Christmas Countdown

Hand-made advent calendar made by Charlotte

This year the Christmas break is going to be a bit different for me as things are a bit up in the air with regards to moving home. So I decided that I am going to get prepared with gifts and put up my decorations super early, which explains this post. It is probably (and hopefully) my last Christmas in this house, so I am going to make the most of it. Pictures to come soon!

Posted on

Weekend Walks – Trent Park

The obelisk was brought from Wrest Park, by owner Sir Philip Sassoon in 1934 I had a lovely walk in Trent Park on Saturday, which is in Oakwood, North London. The park has been home to a Middlesex University campus since 1992, before which it was part of Middlesex Polytechnic. The grand house and its grounds have a rich history, daing back to the fourteenth century, which you can read more about here. 

Two sphinxes flank the stairs down to the grounds, at the back of the mansion

As you may know, I am very interested in statues and can’t resist staring at them at every opportunity. Luckily for me, London has more statues than any other city in the world. Most of the time, I find myself rushing past them like everybody else, trying to get to the next place. Occasionally I make the time to stop and look at them properly. I think it’s brilliant that we have such beautiful art on public display for everyone to enjoy.

I haven’t yet been able to find out more about this particular statue, but hopefully I will, because in a few weeks time I am going on a Trent Park History and Mystery walk! I find it fascinating – who are the characters and what does the lion at the bottom symbolise? In the picture below you can see a close-up of the lion’s open mouth – perhaps it’s roaring?

My favourite statue in Trent Park

The vast park is home to hundreds of trees. I remember when I studied at Middlesex Uni, finding out that a new tree is planted to commemorate the life of the university’s lectureres after their death. What a lovely way to be remembered.

This statue depicts Venus, and stands to the right of the mansion house

This fallen tree is almost completely hollow in the middle

The Mansion Building, Trent Park

You can read more about the statues outside St Paul’s Cathedral which I blogged about earlier.

Posted on

Mums and Kids Relaxation

Last month I ran a relaxation session for mums and their children together as I thought this would be a lovely way for younger children to experience a relaxation session.

I wanted to find out what mums would like the most if I were to market these sessions to the public – do they want a special time with one of their pre-school children, or would they like to be able to bring their baby along too? I have noticed that most groups are for either mums and babies (no older siblings) or mums and older children (no babies). Many mums would love to be able to go to sessions with one of their children, but they don’t have the childcare options to do that, so they need to take both children with them. For this reason, I tried out a relaxation session with a range of children – babies from 3 weeks old (who luckily slept through the session) to children who are almost five and have started school. 

The results were just as I suspected!

I found out that children of 3 and over could join in and feel the benefits of relaxing with their mums most easily, and some of the babies enjoyed the snuggly part of the session when they got to lie down and have a cuddle. The toddlers (who could crawl or walk and talk a little) were the hardest to engage. They had a blast all the same because they were enjoying running around and shouting happily, but this made it difficult for the other children and mums to hear and to relax! The feedback from most mums was to have separate sessions. It was a valuable insight and I learnt a lot about the sort of space I would need to hire in order to make the best sessions possible.

Again, I would like to extend a huge thank you to all of my friends who came along to the session and helped me with my research.

You can register your interest in relaxation classes for mums and children by emailing me via the contact form.

Posted on

Relaxation Party

Last month I held a Relaxation Party at my home with a small group of friends, to introduce them to some simple relaxation techniques and to share the Relax Kids CDs which I had been raving about. I wanted to create an arena where I could allow people to listen to the cds and experience them first hand, so as such I made a little listening station complete with cd player and headphones in the kitchen. I chose my music, aromatherapy oils, lighting and seating arrangements carefully in order to create the right mood. As ever, space was an issue but we had just the right amount of people to make it feel full, but so that we could still fit. My lovely neighbour kindly leant me a few chairs which did the trick.

A selection of Relax Kids cds and books

More Relax Kids cds

The guests were either primary school teachers or mothers of young children (or both), and to make the evening even more relaxing, the ladies were able to book massages with my guest Mary. Again, I spent time making the ‘treatment room’ (my bedroom) as welcoming as possible, with fairy lights and candles. Almost every lady had a treatment – hand, foot or neck and shoulder massages, so by the end of the evening we were all completely relaxed.

One lucky guest won a Relaxation Gift Bag in the raffle!I shared all manner of massage books and paraphernalia I have amassed over the years too. Finally I taught a little self-massage and we did a short group meditation. 

I was really pleased with how the evening went, because I hadn’t really talked to my friends much about meditation or relaxation before. Many of my friends are teachers, and as a group we tend to be quite wound-up and cynical (or maybe that’s the cynic in me talking)! I had spoken to individuals about my NLP and coaching work, and I’ve led some training sessions at my old school to do with new-agey type stuff, but I was still nervous about sharing this part of my life with some of my friends. I suppose because it was in a group of people as opposed to talking to individuals about it. So, to those who were there, I’d like to extend huge thanks for your support. I felt the whole experience was very succesful and has also spurred me onto have some new exciting ideas, so watch this space for updates!